Wednesday 30 January 2013

Oh this is so inconvenient

Today started as any normal day; I woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, was inundated by emails, decided I hated my job, had free theatre tickets dropped on my desk, remembered I loved my job, swivelled on my chair a bit and thought about lunch. 

Then the not so normal thing happened. My vision went blurry and I started to shake so badly that I couldn't hold my pen.

I took my glasses off and held on to my desk, trying to focus and stop the tremor. I thought perhaps it was a panic attack so I tried to slow my breath, but I was still breathing at an even pace and my heart wasn't racing. I went to the bathroom, really because I didn't know what else to do. My tremor was so severe that I could see myself shaking in the mirror, even through my double vision. I have been warned that with the amount of medication I take there's the potential for the drug levels to become toxic. 

I went to my bosses office and when she asked what I wanted, I held out my hands and told her I couldn't stop shaking and needed to get to a doctor. She walked me outside as I tried through shaking hands to call my doctor. I got through and when I explained what was wrong with me he told me to come straight in. 

All my obs came back within the range of normal, my pulse rate was up a little and my temperature was higher than usual. I didn't have enough of the symptoms to suggest I have serotonin syndrome, but my doctor couldn't rule out an adverse reaction to lithium or a change to my thyroid or kidney function. I was sent away with the reassurance that I probably wouldn't die and to go to hospital if I developed any other symptoms. 

My tremor has now calmed down to an almost undetectable shake and I'm off to get a full panel of blood tests tomorrow morning. I'm worried that this episode is going to mean a change to my medication regime and that is something I'm really not excited about doing a week and a half before I go overseas. There's always the danger with medication changes that my mood will take a dip and I really don't need that when I'm going through the already stressful experience of changing time zones and going through airports. Of course there's nothing I can do but hope symptoms don't progress and that any medication changes are kind to me.

So it's a very shaky sign-off from me tonight.

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